Textiles such as shirts (e.g., tee shirts) having a variety of designs thereon have become very popular in recent years. Many shirts are sold with pre-printed designs to suit the tastes of consumers. In addition, many customized tee shirt stores are now in the business of permitting customers to select designs or decals of their choice.
Transfer papers per se are known in the art in order to permit customers to create their own designs on transfer sheets for application to tee shirts by use of a conventional hand iron, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,358 issued Sep. 23, 1980. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,953 issued Sep. 27, 1988, is directed to a method for utilizing a personal computer, a video camera or the like to create graphics, images, or creative designs on a fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,548 is directed to a silver halide photographic transfer element and to a method for transferring an image from the transfer element to a receptor surface. Provisional application 60/029,917 discloses that the silver halide light sensitive grains be dispersed within a carrier that functions as a transfer layer, and does not have a separate transfer layer. Provisional application 60/056,446 discloses that the silver halide transfer element has a separate transfer layer. Provisional Application 60/065,806 relates to a transfer element using CYCOLOR technology, and has a separate transfer layer. Provisional Application 60/065,804 relates to a transfer element using thermoautochrome technology, and has a separate transfer layer. Provisional application 60/030,933 relates to a transfer element using CYCOLOR and thermo-autochrome technology, but having no separate transfer layer. Provisional Application 60/127,625 by Williams et al., filed Apr. 1, 1999 is directed to a transfer sheet which, in one embodiment, is imagable by a laser copier or laser printer. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/791,755 discloses a peel-away transfer material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,179 is directed to a printable heat transfer material using a thermoplastic polymer such as a hard acrylic polymer or poly(vinyl acetate) as a barrier layer, and has a separate film-forming binder layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,990 relates to an image-receptive heat transfer paper which includes an image-receptive melt-transfer film layer comprising a thermoplastic polymer overlaying the top surface of a base sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,902 relates to a printable material comprising a thermoplastic polymer and a film-forming binder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,345 relates to a paper for thermal image transfer to flat porous surfaces, which contains an ethylene copolymer or a ethylene copolymer mixture and a dye-receiving layer.